The White Ship (Dante Gabriel Rossetti)

By none but me can the tale be told,
The butcher of Rouen, poor Berold.
(Lands are swayed by a King on a throne.)
'Twas a royal train put forth to sea,
Yet the tale can be told by none but me.
(The sea hath no King but God alone.)

King Henry held it as life's whole gain
That after his death his son should reign.

'Twas so in my youth I heard men say,

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And my old age calls it back today.

King Henry of England's realm was he
And Henry Duke of Normandy.

The times had changed when on either coast
“Clerkly Harry” was all his boast.

Of ruthless strokes full many an one
He had struck to crown himself & his son;
And his elder brother's eyes were gone.

But all the chiefs of the English land
Had knelt and kissed the Prince's hand.

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And next with his son he sailed to France

To claim the Norman allegiance:

And every baron in Normandy
Had taken the oath of fealty.

'Twas sworn and sealed, and the day had come
When the King and the Prince might journey home:

For Christmas cheer is to home hearts dear,
And Christmas now was drawing near.

Stout Fitz-Stephen came to the King,—
A pilot famous in sea-faring;

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And he held to the King, in all men's sight,

A mark of gold for his tribute's right.

“Liege Lord, my father guided the ship
From whose boat your father's foot did slip
When he caught the English soil in his grip

“And cried, “By this clasp I claim command
O'er every rood of English land!”

“He was borne to the realm you rule o'er now
In that ship with the archer carved at its prow:

“And thither I'll bear, an' it be my due,

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Your father's son and his grandson too.

“The famed White Ship is mine in the bay;
From Harfleur's harbour she sails today,